Double Dragon 4Review

As wise people often say, you can learn a lot from the past. But ironically, despite being a retro-inspired sequel to the fondly remembered arcade and NES games, Double Dragon 4 patently ignores the lessons of history. It slavishly works to emulate, both in look and controls, a game that was quickly iterated on and left behind by a slew of other arcade beat ‘em ups. Even compared to the classics that immediately supplanted its predecessor, Double Dragon 4 feels shallow and dated.

Ostensibly, its appeal is the nostalgia trip it takes you on, but this is immediately undercut by the fact that it takes all of its cues from the comparatively weak NES port instead of the far superior arcade version. Animations are stiff and lifeless, enemies look generic and unthreatening, and then there are the manufactured technical issues. I can appreciate the effort it takes to build in visual glitches like screen tearing and flickering for the sake of authenticity, if you’re attempting to faithfully emulate an old game. But here, in a modern-day sequel, it just makes everything look uglier for nostalgia’s sake.

Despite taking its artistic inspiration from the console version, Double Dragon 4 takes pages straight out of the book of ‘80s quarter-munchers, which is to say: it’s cheap as all hell. Off-screen enemies you can’t see are all too happy to hit you without recourse, and enemies will lie in wait atop ladders or over your downed body to take cheap shots as you rise, leading to nearly unavoidable damage.

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This wasn’t a good time back in the ‘80s, and it certainly isn’t in 2017.

At least you can get up with some invincible moves to clear a couple of enemies out, but the remaining ones will follow up afterwards and knock you right back down, creating a frustrating cycle of inescapable beatdowns. This wasn’t a good time back in the ‘80s, and it certainly isn’t in 2017.

That isn’t to say that there’s a challenge here, though. You can employ the very same cheap tactics to the generic goons that shuffle slowly forth to stop you. It’s easy to trivialize many of the fights just by repeating the same sequence of moves over and over. But this kind of combat is no more enjoyable when dishing it out than receiving it. The only respite is that, like the games that came before it, you can beat Double Dragon 4 in less than an hour, and even with a friend along for the ride that’s about as much time as I wanted to spend with it.

Double Dragon IV

The next entry in the side-scrolling action game series Double Dragon is finally here! Double Dragon IV picks up Billy and Jimmy's story after the elimination of the Shadow Warriors in Double Dragon II. New attacks, powerful combos, and unbelievable dangers await!

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The Verdict

I am certainly not immune to the charms of 80s and 90s game design, but the NES version of Double Dragon wasn’t a great example for Double Dragon 4 to follow. It’s not just that this simplistic beat-em-up formula didn’t age well graphically or mechanically, it’s that it simply isn’t very fun or engaging to play in 2017.